My name is Rhett Hancock. Kevin Minicus and I head the Coaches Committee for the Darien Junior Football League program and on behalf of the DJFL board, we want to reach out to you and provide you with the philosophy and details of the 3rd grade tackle program. We are also actively looking for parents to get involved in this grade.
We have your name as your child participated in the 2nd grade flag program last year (or is registered in grade 3 for this Fall). This is a transition year for those players that would like to learn the fundamentals of tackle football in a safe and healthy environment. It really is a fun and rewarding program. Kevin has four sons and I have two that have gone through the DJFL for a combined 27 seasons and counting! For our kids and ourselves, it has been an outstanding experience learning the game, respecting players and coaches and learning good sportsmanship. We would like to encourage your son to participate and for the parents to get involved if they can make a full or part time commitment to coaching.

TACKLE KEY DATES

The program starts with an equipment pickup in May and the first preseason practices for all grades begin on Monday, August 14th and run for two weeks. During the preseason, there will be 5 days per week that includes conditioning, practice and evaluation, held in the evening starting at 5:30m or 6pm until 7:30pm. These preseason practices are held behind the Town Hall on the Houlihan baseball field.

There are 3-4 days of required conditioning with helmet-only (no pads) practices during the preseason before players can put on pads and begin to train and start to tackle. Following this two weeks of conditioning and practice, there is a Jamboree Labor Day weekend that includes all the towns in the program. The day consists of scrimmages in a controlled environment with live tackling.

The season will begin the following week with no more than six hours a week of practices, which means 3 practices a week and one game a weekend, either Saturday or Sunday.

The season lasts to the end of October and then goes into playoffs, which last in to the first or second week of November depending on the teams progression in the playoffs.

COACHES CLINICS:
The first opportunity for those interested in learning more about 3rd grade coaching is the coaches clinic on Monday April 24th:
Attention 2017 DJFL Tackle Coaches,
DHS Football Head Coach Rob Trifone returns to host four coaching clinics. The clinics are mandatory for returning coaches and prospective tackle football coaches. The TENTATIVE schedule for the clinics are as follows:

(All clinics will be held at DHS at Coach Trifone's classroom , Room C-108; Enter into the building in the main doors by the gym, make a right down the hall, past the restrooms and right again down the next hall. The office is on the left side)

Kevin and myself are available to speak further to anyone who has any questions.
Please let us know if you have any questions or would like to become involved.